Consumer Power: Have your say on energy contracts

robbyg

I myself changed to E.D.F last Sept. I was paying a total of £80 for my elec and gas but not a dual fuel tariff. I was told that I would be a few pounds per month better off with E.D.F. How wrong .Within a period of 9 months my payment was £143 on a dual fuel tariff. I dont mind inflation but this is ridiculous. I have now changed after my 12 months contract and say "good riddance" I did not use any more or less fuel than previous and was flabbergasted. I now pay £107 per month

sandra21_2

Date of Contact: 16 July 2010
Type of Contact: Doorstep
Name of Previous
Supplier: British Gas
Name of Provider
Suggesting: EDF
Details of why I think I was missold
The salesman turned up at the door saying that EDF was cheaper than British Gas. Also that EDF was the new name for SWEB the local electricity supplier. But he did keep on saying EDF was cheaper, one reason was because I was going back to my original local supplier.

A week later I had a phone call from British Gas finding out why I was changing, and he said that British Gas was still cheaper. To save a lot of hassle I agreed to stay with BG and they even cancelled the EDF contract for me.

Have not had a problem with British Gas, its EDF who I feel was pushing me into changing with discounts, but nothing was actually written on my contract that I would be getting discounts.

jstallan

Moved house last Sept and transferred to my previous supplier (Scottish Power) as I was on a fixed product and allowed to do so, the existing supplier was EDF. The EDF door-2-door salesman has been round 2 since. The first time he was adamant he was the cheapest, so I got my bills out and showed him. Even then he said that deal wouldn't last and EDF would be cheaper and it makes sense to change there and then - yeah right! We had a long conversation about it and he eventually left. The second time he rang, my wife mentioned it was a salesman, so I answered the door - he recognised me and made an excuse he'd knocked at the wrong door, apologised, turned round and started walking.

Noel_Burgess

There have already been two posts about Scottish/Southern using a "buy British" style pitch; Last week I had a doorstepper from Southern - his pitch was along the lines of: -
"you will have had a letter from the government about this.....because Southern Electric is the only British (or English) owned supplier the government is giving us a discount ....to help with the current economic climate by keeping money in the country .... this makes us cheaper than anyone else etc. etc."
I told him he was talking b****cks and sent him away.

I recall a very similar pitch last year but can't be sure it was the same supplier.

I live in North East England (Cleveland) so now we have an almost identical pitch for Scotland, Kent & Cleveland - MUST be an organised ploy.

Noel

Laurathebean

When we were at university in Sheffield in 2003 we had an energy contract with british gas. One day a man called apparently from the national grid who told us the electricity was coming through the wrong pipes... Naively we signed a sheet of paper and hey ho, it turned out several weeks later we had been switched to Npower. Sharks! We tried to cancel but were fobbed off over the phone. They still owe me £30 which I doubt I'll ever get back